The sense of “I” dissolved in light, consciousness, and ecstasy. For how long, I do not know: seconds, minutes? When I came back, my heart was pumping like crazy and the whole experience cooled down in a few minutes.
In the West, spirituality has long been divorced from the activities of the physical body. Great efforts have been made to transcend the physical body, to control its desires and needs, and to achieve purity. As a result, the body’s role in spiritual awakening is rarely discussed and our culture does not fully appreciate the potential of the body-mind connection. But if you are doing energy or healing practices, such as body therapy, breathwork, deep relaxation exercises, guided imagery, yoga, qigong, massage, or martial arts, you have likely felt the sensations of energy activating in your body. You may even have a sense that your body is a channel for moving energy. Here are two stories of awakening that happened suddenly, without any preparation or understanding.
Jimmy was a teenager when he did a very basic meditation for the first time, concentrating on his breath as it went in and out. A sudden blast of energy from the perineal region shot to the top of his head, like a cosmic orgasm with energy rushing as if through a fire hose.
The sense of “I” dissolved in light, consciousness, and ecstasy. For how long, I do not know: seconds, minutes? When I came back, my heart was pumping like crazy and the whole experience cooled down in a few minutes.
Another young man named Joseph was in the second week of a meditation retreat when he felt a flow of energy all around his body and through his spine, along with tingling sensations and intense hot and cold rushes, movements, and uncontrollable shakings.
Then I felt an explosion of energy in my brain and two days later a tsunami of energy came in through the top of my head, producing an astoundingly big expansion in consciousness that seemed to encompass the whole universe. At this point I was incredibly afraid and thought I was going to physically die.
These are descriptions of energy in motion. Have you ever thought of yourself as an energy field? Like everything in the world, we are made of atoms that are positively, negatively, or neutrally charged. That means we are all energy fields, vibrating entities that must have energy to exist. The formation of a fetus into a baby is an energetic phenomenon, and when the form and the energy reach full development, a child emerges into the world. Coming to life is an energetic activity, and so is dying. We can see that energy and consciousness simultaneously depart someone’s body when he or she dies.
Everything within us is alive, moving and forming the physicality that holds a flow of consciousness. When we pursue spiritual or energetic practices, we can feel energy shifting, stirring, and even erupting. This is part of the awakening process, yet like Joseph we can become frightened and disoriented, as if we should not be experiencing it.
In some spiritual communities, energetic movement is considered a distraction and an undesirable experience. Awakening energy may not be the goal of spiritual practice, but it is part of the journey. If all of life emerges through an energetic process, why should we be so worried when our transformation includes its movement?
In many Eastern traditions, our interior energy field is understood to be intimately related to the way our consciousness functions. Therefore, opening and harmonizing the flow of energy in our body gradually transforms our relationship to life by changing our consciousness. These shifts open our awareness to perceive new potentials and add new dimensions to our life. Anna, a psychotherapist, went to see an acupressurist to release stiffness in her body. During the session, she found herself raising lots of energy and moving spontaneously.
I was shaking all over. The practitioner held a pressure point at my coccyx and I went into a big vibration, a powerful wave of energy sweeping up and through the top of my head. My upper body felt swollen with energy. It was almost beyond my ability to endure and I flung to one side, moaning. I do not know if I blacked out or if it just stopped. Then I suddenly felt full of overwhelming love, intoxicated.
For several hours, Anna continued to feel throbbing and blissful energy flow all over her body, most intensely in her shoulders and head. She wanted to fall into this energy, to fly or swim in it, and never come back. For Anna, this was a transformative event that led to deeper emotional and meditative experiences.
I have often wondered why these sudden energetic shifts happen for some people, and yet so many do the same practice and never feel them. I meditated for fifteen years and it was not until I saw someone experiencing a breathwork session that I realized the link between spirituality and physical energy. I then experienced a session that connected my body to the stillness I had built in my mind through many years of meditation, released constricted energy, and activated kundalini. It is possible some bodies are simply more open, sensitive, and available to activation. Or perhaps there is a moment in our life, an optimal moment, in which an energetic opening can bring transformation.
James, an attorney, was a novice meditator attempting to reduce his work stress. On the third morning of his practice, he was surprised to feel energy arise from the pelvis.
It moved slowly through the center of my body all the way through my head with ecstatic sensations and inner lights and all the rest. It was very powerful. I had no idea what this experience was.
Similarly, we can have these opening experiences without any clue about what happened or why. Energetic openings can change our life. Energetic blocks in our body are felt as an uncomfortable physical contraction where energy is not moving freely, and they often hold the roots of a past emotional or physical trauma. They are most commonly felt in the stomach, back, and neck. The experience of releasing a block can be extremely blissful and permanently change how we relate with pain, physically and emotionally. When a block releases, we become more open and available to life.
Many practices we do to find inner calm or harmony also initiate awareness of, and movement in, this subtle energy system. So what is happening? Yogic perspectives of subtle energy offer a helpful aid to understanding. I have studied these extensively, and you will find many references to kundalini and the yogic subtle-body system in this book.
Beyond our personal experience, there is a cosmic force at work as universal energy moves within our body in unique ways that can trigger many sensations. According to the Indian treatise Devatma Shakti: Divine Power:
Vedic philosophers regard the whole creation on physical and metaphysical planes as a play of different forces, all being different forms of one universal cosmic energy or power…the phenomenon may be compared with the formation of mists, clouds, lightning, thunder, rains, hail, snow, and so forth from an all-pervading atmosphere of vapor.5
In yoga, there is a cosmic energy within us known as prana. It enters a fetus at conception and becomes the bioenergy of life. A powerhouse of extra prana is coiled at the base of the spine and is known as kundalini. When kundalini is activated, it moves up through the body, bringing many physical, emotional, and psychic changes. It is often depicted, and referred to, as being like a snake. Some yoga practices are designed to awaken this transformative energy.
Chakras are energy centers located along our cerebral spinal system, and while they are not materially real, they are where yogis believe physical, subtle, and cosmic energies connect. The spot where kundalini coils is the chakra called mooladhara, which is located near the base of our spine. The energy of kundalini is considered an infinite, cosmic power that can transform consciousness. It is the source of our life force, associated with sexual drive and procreation when coiled at the base. When awakened, kundalini can move either gradually or suddenly through the body, on its way through higher chakras to the top of the head, where it can connect with its source—the universal or cosmic energy. When we die, kundalini leaves the body and merges into this source.
Prana, the energy flow in our bodies, is commonly translated as “life force,” and is not unique to yoga: it is called chi or qi in Chinese energy practices and ki in Japanese. Tantric Buddhist traditions recognize the role of energy in awakening, and advanced Sufi initiations activate it. Many indigenous cultures have rituals to arouse energy and create altered states through dance, drumming, and chanting. Ancient images of snakes and dragons have been associated with this potential for transformation by heightening energy and consciousness, which offered collective insight and healing for tribes. Some Charismatic Christian groups also heighten energy while speaking in tongues or moving ecstatically to music.
Around the world and for thousands of years, methods for sensing and harmonizing this life energy in the body have been used to improve health, increase longevity, and attain spiritual insight. Here are descriptions of some of them:
Many people do not want a defined spiritual path, and others engage spiritual practices with Buddhist, Christian, Sufi, or Shamanic orientations that are quite different from the yogic one. For some people, a complete immersion into the yogic understanding, practices, and lifestyle may be a life calling. I find most Westerners are not inclined this way.
In my work with clients, I have come to value how the yogic perspective offers some understanding of why the unique experiences that arise on their spiritual journeys happen. I don’t rely heavily on an understanding of the routes that kundalini takes, preferring to focus on the emotional and lifestyle changes that support spiritual realization. At the same time, I have found it is useful to be aware of how kundalini and the chakras work, because they convey some universal conditions and potentials in spiritual experience.
In yogic science, the foundation of our energy field is at the base of the spine, where kundalini is said to be wound 3.5 times. Our central energy channel in the spine is called sushumna. When kundalini awakens, it optimally will move through sushumna and begin to impact the chakras—although in some systems it is believed to take other routes in channels that are less useful for a full awakening.7 I have never seen an explanation for why kundalini would choose one channel over another, but teachers do say this is why a knowledgeable guide and proper preparation are needed before activation.
Most yogic texts describe 72,000 lines of energy called nadis that flow from the primary chakras, which I will soon describe. Nadis are invisible tube-like threads of subtle ethereal matter through which consciousness, intelligence, sensation, and emotion flow. Swami Sivananda writes “They are not physical, measurable, dissectable structures within our physical body, but are the basic energies which underlie and motivate life and consciousness.”8 Kundalini science describes six possible nadis through which an activated kundalini may move: brahma, chitrini, lakshmi, vajra, saraswati, and sushumna. They each have unique impacts, with risings that may be partial, intermediate, or complete. I’ll explore their effects a bit.
In this system, the remedy for a problematic kundalini arising is to reroute the energy back to the sushumna nadi. This can be difficult, because it requires the release of certain energetic blockages, and you must have strong vital energy and a focused mind.9
In its coiled state, kundalini seems to hold the system in an energetic stasis. Some tantric and yoga schools intentionally activate kundalini so that it rises. This fosters awakening experiences that stimulate a deconstructing, rewiring, and reorganizing of the energy field. As it enlivens chakra areas, energy spreads out and intensifies movement through the nadis, thousands of which branch out from the central channel. The impact of this heightened energy promotes the release of old patterns and an opening to new perceptions and experiences. When we experience a block, or great discomfort in some area of our body, from a yogic perspective a chakra may need to be activated and awakened.
Practices such as yogic breathing, chanting, and concentration rely on the chakras as focal points to assist awakening by clearing and transforming energy, which make our energy field more open and our body more flexible. Each chakra is in an area of the body that holds unique blockages and conditions that can be released. Some people are born with an open chakra that supports unique capacities or talents, such as strong compassion or extraordinary creativity or charismatic speaking.
There are many books written about chakras, and this can be confusing because each presents a unique perspective though the differing theories of traditions and individuals. There are a variety of interpretations, and occultists, mystics, and yogis have divergent points of view. Swami Satyananda Saraswati wrote that our personal visions of chakras may vary in terms of color and interpretation according to personal tendencies, which may account for varying approaches. I will provide only limited descriptions.
I was told by Baba Hari Das, an Ashtanga Yoga master, that there are fifty chakras in the body, but there are six or seven all along sushumna that are most commonly known. Some esoteric traditions speak of multiple chakras above the head. Surgeons may identify chakras with nerve fibers gathered in various plexuses, and a clairvoyant may see their colors and movement.10 Some people view them as symbolic, not literally existing, but clairvoyants say they can see them spinning like wheels and feel them radiating. In some styles of yogic thought and practice, there are elaborate images for the major chakras with colors, deities, and symbols that have specific meanings. A symbolic opening, or turning over, of a lotus can represent the flowering of a person’s potential.
I have chosen to describe the chakras through the portal of the kundalini tantra lineage taught by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, and to emphasize some of the experiences associated with each chakra that clients have reported to me. According to the kundalini tantra tradition, these are the major chakras.
This chakra is located at the base of the spine. Mooladhara chakra is considered the seat of guilt, complexes, and passions. It is the foundation for a sense of being in our body. When it first awakens, we might feel explosive emotions and a sensation that our body is floating in space. Once kundalini is activated here, yogis believe it is important to move energy through it as quickly as possible.
Slightly above mooladhara, at the level of the coccyx or tailbone, is the chakra related to the reproductive and urinary systems. It is also involved in the initial awakening of kundalini. When kundalini energy is stuck here, we may experience many negative emotions, sexual fantasies, lethargy, depression, and other forms of inner turmoil. Sexual energy can become intense. As life force energy, kundalini stays active in this chakra area during adulthood, stimulating sexual drive and procreation. Because sexual release involves a downward flow of energy, and kundalini yoga practices are designed to reverse this energy upward, sexual activity is discouraged in many yogic traditions. However in some tantric traditions known as “left-handed traditions,” sexual stimulation, within an elaborate ritual with a trained and awakened initiator, can be used as a method for igniting and raising kundalini.11 Some people describe the bliss of an initial arising of kundalini as feeling like a whole-body orgasm.
In Buddhist traditions that work with subtle energies and in many tantric texts, kundalini is said to awaken from the manipura chakra. By using it as the starting point, awakening energy is believed to be in no danger of receding back into the lower chakras. Manipura is behind the naval, on the inner wall of the spinal column, and is considered the center of dynamism, energy, will, and achievement. It is said to radiate energy throughout our body. When it is deficient, we feel lifeless, lack vitality, and may be depressed. When it is weak, psychological issues may arise such as low self-esteem or discouragement, as well as physical problems like indigestion. When the chakra is strong and awake, we feel empowered to move forward in our life. If mind and heart are not awakened, we might feel a strong sense of purpose that is driven by ego demands. If we are awakening, we may have an authentic, intuitive sense of being in alignment with what is right for us.
This name comes from the unbroken beat of our heart. The chakra is located directly behind the center of the chest. It is believed to be responsible for all the creative sciences and fine arts. When it first awakens, we may hear voices or music from other realms, buzzing and humming sounds, and the music of a flute. It is a center of wish-fulfillment, so when this is awakened, yogis are often warned to avoid negative thoughts and people, and to focus on positive thoughts to empower decision-making and strengthen their sense of will. Sometimes we feel our heart has broken open, through love or grief, and it can be painful when old wounds are released. Sensitivity may become acute. Most of us have some blockage in this area because of grief, anger, loss, and disappointment. When the heart awakens, these will fall away—a significant turning point in the awakening process. Afterward, we can experience a spontaneous, unconditional love for all beings. Devotional practices in all traditions aim at opening the heart.
This chakra is located in the cervical plexus, directly behind the pit of the throat. When awakened, it is associated with eloquence, self-expression, wisdom, compassion, freedom from depression, and peace of mind. It is associated with reading the thoughts of others both near and far, and with longevity. We commonly feel blockages in the throat chakra due to the many ways we have learned to withhold free expression and keep quiet in the face of difficult situations. I believe it is also associated with creativity, as I have found in my own experience that when my mind veers off into possible writing projects during meditation, I can feel energy active in my throat. If I move this energy, the thoughts stop.
Because this chakra is directly between the eyes and slightly above them, and because it is associated with psychic seeing, it is often called a “third eye.” In kundalini yoga, this is the chakra that links our mind to the guru, or that enables us to hear the voice of an inner guru or guide. It is also the area where we might feel nothingness or meet the void, as ego drops away. It may also open us to astral and psychic dimensions of experience, including sounds, visions, and light. When we see stunning, bright light, it is likely kundalini is active here. Yogic teachings describe various levels of this chakra’s awakening, including seeing the light of one-thousand moons, and later, one-thousand suns.
This is not considered a chakra in every kundalini system. The number 1,000 represents access to the infinite. Some systems describe it as located at the top of the head, and others place it above the head. It represents the culmination of the awakening process, when the sense of individuality fades and consciousness awakens to itself. It signifies the dissolution into samadhi, union with the divine. Swami Saraswati calls its full experience the “void of totality” and the “unfolding of enlightenment.”12
With this brief description of the chakras, we have explored how some classical yogic traditions recognize that various experiences arise during a transformative process on the way to enlightenment. The Resources section of this book and also my website list a variety of books that offer more detailed descriptions and interpretations of chakras and our subtle body system. I’ll continue to refer to chakras throughout the book.
As we awaken, life force energy moves through us to clear out old traumas, beliefs, and barriers that are woven in our body’s energetic structure. This works similarly to a move from one home to another, with serious downsizing. When we’re getting ready to move, we sort our stuff, clean out the cupboards, discard whatever we don’t need, and get rid of items that are too bulky to bring with us. Doing this makes room for a new life in a new home, which has different dimensions and different needs that we must meet.
In a similar way, to shift into a new way of being the energetic body gets cleared out and reorganized, and whatever is no longer needed gets discarded. Kundalini transforms these old patterns so that we can see clearly again, free of conditioned responses, and become open to compassion, love, and expression that is authentic. As I’ll describe more in the next chapter, energetic transformation supports the movement of consciousness into awareness of vastness and connection with its source. For this to happen, all our identifications become irrelevant.
Changes in energy can feel chaotic—even more so if our conditioning is traumatic, our mind does not understand what is happening, our body is full of toxins from stress or unhealthy food, or if the change occurs with psychedelic substances or plant medicines. This is why, in ancient times, people did not pursue awakening until their physical bodies were relatively pure and their lifestyle was managed within the simple confines of an ashram, cave, or forest retreat. And their transformation processes happened through solo or community rituals with experienced teachers or elders at hand to offer guidance and help.
Today we tend to enter the awakening process with many unhealthy beliefs, conditions, and injuries that need to be released. We are part of a culture that considers awakening unnatural, or even dangerous, because the results take us beyond mainstream concepts about divinity, achievement, and worldly success. An awakened person does not fit in as comfortably as conventional people wish them to. For example, upon awakening we might watch news reports and feel that most of the world is tragically insane. We might realize that our friends and families are entangled in personal stories or beliefs that are imaginary but cause them great pain.
While our general culture and some spiritual teachers consider energy unreal, nonexistent, or irrelevant to the awakening experience, I consider it to be a natural occurrence. Energy may arise suddenly or gradually, softly or intensely, create emotional upheaval or bliss—our life-force movements vary as much as our life histories. This is a spiritual birthing process, and sometimes it is as messy as our physical birth was. There may be pain or exhaustion involved, and it may be necessary to diagnose, or rule out, medical conditions because an underlying illness or hormonal imbalance can be aggravated by energy arising. These are all challenges we can face, which I discuss in depth in Part Two.
Because energy is intimately linked with consciousness, when we meet these movements with curiosity, openness, and patience—instead of fear—the energy uncoils to support a consciousness that remembers its true nature. As energy arises, it often triggers shifts in consciousness that ultimately promote spiritual realization. In the following chapter, we’ll look at the awakening of consciousness.